'Joyeux Noël': Finding the Spirit in Wartime

Hello, and welcome back to Second Chances where I give another well-deserved shot at the maligned, forgotten, and overlooked.

There are a ton of Christmas movies out there that are meant to be inspirational from the various takes on Dickens' A Christmas Carol to It's a Wonderful Life. While the messages of those movies can be uplifting and powerful, they're still constrained by the fact that they are works of fiction. The most inspirational stories, to me, are the true ones, the ones that seem too good to be true that become amazing when one discovers they ARE true. That's why I consider the 2005 mixed language film Joyeux Noël to be one of the greatest Christmas films of the modern era and one that should be as much essential viewing as Miracle on 34th Street.

Joyeux Noël tells an incredible true story more than a century old. In 1914, while World War I was destroying most of Europe, three companies led by the French, the Scottish, and the Germans find themselves at a stalemate outside of the French town of Lens. Desperately trying to keep their spirits up over spending Christmas in the trenches, the Scots start playing music on their side of the field. Amazingly, the Germans responded by singing Stille Nacht. (Yes, I know it's Silent Night in English.) This moment leads the companies to declare a cease fire for Christmas. The soldiers come out of hiding, exchange pictures of family, share champagne provided by the French, and even hold a joint mass led by a Scottish priest, who was serving as a field medic at the time. This moment of brotherhood made going back to war virtually impossible, leading to some messy fallout from the superiors on all sides.

This is not the happiest story in the world, but it wasn't meant to be. Writer/director Christian Carion clearly wanted to avoid artificial flourishes and just tell the story of that amazing moment. He succeeded brilliantly. The war scenes in the first act are intense without the excesses of the Normandy landing in Saving Private Ryan. The six main characters get plenty of screen time without their stories becoming overbearing. The only recognizable player in the movie is Diane Kruger, who plays the Danish opera singer Anna Sørensen. However, despite the lack of big names, the performances were outstanding all around. The best acting moments were during the dressing downs near the end. Gary Lewis (Father Palmer) and Guillaume Canet (Lt. Audebert) gave restrained performances that nevertheless felt powerful. My girlfriend also gave major props to Daniel Brühl (Lt. Horstmayer).

The point of contention that some will have with the movie is that it jumps among four languages. Most of the film is evenly split among English, French, and German, but Latin comes in during the mass scene. There are plenty of people who take issue with having to read subtitles throughout a two-hour movie. This is probably why this film flew under the radar for many in America.

Joyeux Noël is a whole lot more than just some foreign arthouse film. The story tells of how the spirit of Christmas truly can bring out the best in people and, in this case, has. Few people in America know of this, as it took place years before the United States joined World War I. This is a story that needs to be told and this film tells it with eloquence. I don't let a Christmas go by without watching it. Copies are somewhat hard to find in the U.S., but this film is definitely worth the search.

Thank you for your attention. If you want to suggest another movie that deserves another look, send me a message. Merry Christmas!